To expand more on this Nintendo between others surely paid letting Wii dead for almost 2 years, same with Sony having PSP dead in west I don't remember since when. Wii U and Vita were successors of irrelevant systems. 3DS launched when DS was still very strong and that helped the famous 3DS turnaround (that wasn't that much of turnaround outside Japan).
That's probably the reason Vita still has a chance in Japan finding an audience and making Sony some money. But in west the system is finished. As for Wii U... let's just say Nintendo must be happy if it hits GameCube numbers.
Bingo. Nintendo banked everything on capitalizing and repeating their Wii success but let the platform die for two years, especially in Japan.
This is why I don't understand the opinion I sometimes see expressed on the forum of "Why release the new system? The old one is still selling."
That's usually the situation you want to release a new system under, because you have a bunch of happy customers instead of a bunch of unhappy customers.
It's also why I think even super popular systems like the 3DS should be replaced in year 5 or 6, even if it's still selling great in Japan, because given how it's currently doing in the West, it's unlikely to hold well (or at all) into years 7 and 8. It's not like Japanese consumers are likely to pass up the successor to a platform and hardware line they love.
Can you imagine if Sony had let the PS3 sit two more years? The PS4 would be completely toast.
